According to a report this past week by The Business Journal, Fresno, Calif., USA, Maxco Packaging, (Parlier, Calif.) is set to kick off a $1.3 million plant expansion to add a 36,000 sq. ft. addition to its150,000-sq. ft. facility in Parlier. "The expansion will allow us to put more equipment in our existing plant and use the additional space as a warehouse for our inventory of paper stock," said company owner Max Flaming.

Concrete work should begin in late April, Flaming said, and the project is scheduled for completion by the end of August of this year.

The company will not be hiring additional employees as part of the expansion, but Flaming said current employees "will get extra hours" in the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2016 as new packing equipment comes online. Maxco develops and manufactures corrugated fresh produce containers.

The family-owned company has been in business since 1972 and is a major supplier to the area grape and tree fruit industries. "We’re strictly fresh packers," said Flaming, who started the business while still a student at Fresno State, gluing labels on wooden boxes and then selling them to local farmers.

Today, the company works with many of the big-name growers around the state. All of Maxco’s corrugated containers are "100% recyclable" and the company is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Being environmentally conscious has always been part of Maxco’s business plan, Flaming added. In 2011, Maxco built a 1-megawatt photovoltaic solar system to power its packaging facility, offsetting about 50% of the facility’s energy needs.

With more than 400 employees working for the company during peak production periods, Max Flaming said his operating strategy is simple: "We hire the best, let them do what they do best, and grow."